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Personal Day
| Next = | Episode list = Season 3}} Shortly after being released from prison, a man who proclaimed his innocence is found murdered. The victim’s case is reopened and the squad works hard to solve a seventeen-year old murder. To the surprise of Raydor, Rusty confesses the reason behind his recent suspicious activity. The Victim *Ana Escobedo *Dante Gomez The Suspects *Dante Gomez *Manuel Escobedo *Carlos Escobedo *Cesar Padilla Evidence Closing the Case Tao and Buzz are able to clean up the security footage of the liquor store robbery enough to get a view of one of the men's faces. They are able to get a partial match which, while inadmissible in court, identifies the man as Hector Zamora, the man Manuel and Carlos told them was protecting Dante. Sykes and Tao question Hector who is serving a life sentence, telling him the statute of limitations on the robbery ran out a long time ago so they can't charge him and he admits to being the robber. They ask him about the second man on the video and show him pictures of Dante's body after he refuses to identify his accomplice. After learning Dante was murdered the night before, Hector confirms that the second man was Dante, proving he was innocent of Ana's murder as he'd claimed. Hector explains that Dante was his best friend and the only real friend he'd ever had. Dante knew if he confessed to the robbery instead of the murder, everyone would know Hector was the other man. Hector had two strikes against him and would've gotten a life sentence for the robbery if convicted. Dante confessed to the murder to protect his best friend. Hector ended up getting sent to jail for life for another crime seven months later and in return protected Dante from anyone trying to harm him. Julio is left horrified that Dante really was as innocent as he claimed and they question Cesar Padilla, the man who claimed to have witnessed Dante murder Ana. Under pressure from the squad and DDA Hobbs, Cesar admits he lied and was actually across town at the time. He tells them the true killers had threatened him into lying and had been threatening him for years. Cesar eventually tells them Ana's killers are her brothers Manuel and Carlos. The squad interrogates the two men, showing them the video proving Dante's innocence and informing them of how Cesar recanted his statement. Manuel and Carlos tell them that they never threatened Cesar nor had any reason to as he's harmless and they call him "shrimpy". The two men explain that Cesar was in love with Ana and the night of the murder came to their house crying. The squad then brings Cesar back in for questioning and Sykes purposefully lets Hector see Cesar and know he's the witness that put Dante away for a murder he didn't commit. Raydor and Julio question Cesar, telling him that Manuel and Carlos saw him enter the garage to murder Dante though that's a lie. They also tell him that the brothers destroyed his alibi by telling them about him coming to their house the night of Ana's murder. Everyone knew Ana's brothers attacked Dante with a bat so they show him the bat and tell him that he retrieved it and used it to kill Dante who was trying to reopen the investigation into Ana's murder. Cesar tells them its not his bat which prompts them to question what his bat looks like. Tao then brings in Cesar's bat which they found after searching his apartment and has Dante's blood on it, proving it to be the murder weapon. They accuse Cesar of murdering Ana and framing Dante due to being in love with Ana and having no chance with her and murdering Dante to cover up his first murder. Raydor then offers him two choices: confess to the murders and they'll send him to a prison far away for life under another name or they'll arrest him for Dante's murder which will leave him at the mercy of Hector Zamora. Cesar relents and agrees to the deal rather than face the wrath of Hector Zamora. Julio later lets Dante's grandmother know that her grandson was as innocent as he'd claimed and reopens the murder investigations into her two dead sons on his own time to bring her closure on them as well. Guest Cast *Yani Gellman (Dante Gomez) *Kiana Lyz Rivera (Ana Escobedo) Recurring *Ever Carradine (Sharon Beck) Locations Episode Notes *The title of the episode comes from the fact that Provenza is taking a personal day during the events of the episode to help Rusty Beck with his mother. *While Julio Sanchez reopens the investigations into the murders of Dante's father and uncle, its never stated in subsequent episodes if he caught the killers or not. *During the episode, the murder of Ana Escobedo is only stated to have happened seventeen years before during dialogue. The date stamp on the cleaned up security video from the liquor store robbery gives the date as June 7, 1997. Trivia Episode Media Category:Episodes Category:MC Season 3 Category:Major Crimes